


Infinities

by CountlessStars



Category: Dunkirk (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, Translation Available, but not really, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 09:35:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11757033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountlessStars/pseuds/CountlessStars
Summary: There are endless possibilities, countless outcomes. There's life and death, and everything else in between is a variable. (Even the war. Even Farrier.)





	Infinities

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [无限](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11893098) by [nopasanada (FinalCajaNegra)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinalCajaNegra/pseuds/nopasanada)



In another universe, they don't meet at all. Collins spends the whole war flying above the world wrapped in smoke and flames, going where they tell him to go, defeating who they tell him to defeat. He gets through it all, gets a medal (or two, or three) pinned to his uniform and lives a...life. Not always a normal one, but an easier one.

-

In another universe, Farrier doesn't look at him the way he did when they first met; with dark eyes and tight mouth. (But Collins always notices his eyes anyway. Sad but sharp, determined. Knowing. He notices those eyes even when they don't notice him.)

-

In another universe, he drowns there, in the grey water of the Channel. The salt burns his lungs and he breaks his fingers trying to bust the glass of the cockpit. A coldness surrounds him and the light above him gets dimmer, more distant. And then there's silence, perfect and utter silence, something he has not experienced since the beginning of the war. The silence is the last thing he notices.

-

In another universe, they are not even on the same side. They meet in the clouds, the ocean below, the sun above, and the deadly thrill of fight between them. Collins kills Farrier. Farrier kills Collins. They kill each other without hesitation, time after time. They are more machine than human then, metal and fuel instead of blood and bones.

-

In another universe, Collins sees Farrier's Spitfire burst into flames, a trail of smoke following the steep fall. It hits the water violently and Collins thinks he should hear the crash, but the only sound is the hum of his own engine and the pounding of his own heart. 

-

In another universe, there is no war at all. Collins has a job, a boring but easy one and his life is quiet, simple, average. And then Farrier appears one day, disrupting his predictable patterns with a single glance. When their eyes lock, Collins can't shake the feeling he's known the man forever. And then Farrier talks to him, his voice smooth and rough at the same time and Collins needs just one word to leave his old life behind.

-

In another universe, there is Collins, but there is no Farrier. Collins lives and dies just the same, only a little bit more empty.

-

In another universe, the war doesn't end. It's more harsh and cruel than Collins could ever imagine and he feels himself crumbling apart, day after gloomy day. Farrier keeps him from going mad in the middle of all the fire and destruction the war has brought, always just enough to get him through another day. Collins can't talk about any of it, but he knows Farrier understands. They both die, sooner or later, but it doesn't make much difference - they have been dead since the war has started.

-

In another universe, he meets Farrier, but he doesn't know him. He doesn't know how Farrier smiles (barely a twitch of his mouth), how he looks when he finally figures something out. He doesn't know how raspy Farrier's hushed voice gets when he picks him apart, question by question, on one of the many sleepless nights in the barracks. He doesn't know the tiniest hesitation passing through Farrier's face when Collins asks him about his home. He doesn't know the crinkles appearing around Farrier's dark eyes when he finds something amusing. He doesn't know how deep and harsh Farrier's eyes look after yet another night without sleep.

-

In another universe, Collins is one of the men on the beach, waiting for something, anything. He sees Farrier fly above his head, a moment of thrill and excitement briefly disrupting the grey endless waiting. Then the plane is gone and the moment slowly fades into nothingness. Later, much later, a ship takes him home, or a bomb kills him right there, in the sand. For some reason, there's little difference.

-

In another universe, Collins tells Farrier everything. Every thought, every hope, every secret, in a voice barely above murmur. Farrier doesn't ask, doesn't interrupt him. He barely even looks at Collins, but when everything is said, he doesn't leave. The silence between them is empty and mellow.

-

In another universe, Collins is the one flying all the way to the shore, the one to get captured. He's beaten and interrogated and beaten again, but his mind is still somewhere far above the water, just under the white clouds. He doesn't survive long, but he never opens his mouth, not even to cry out in pain.

-

In another universe, Farrier loathes him from the very moment they meet. He angrily corrects Collins when he pronounces his name, putting such an amount of venom and disdain into his voice that Collins feels goosebumps running across his skin. The anger radiates from him constantly and when they eyes meet, Collins always dies a little inside. He can't explain the tight feeling in his chest when Farrier doesn't return one day.

-

In another universe, Collins is someone else. He's someone who has never heard the blood-curdling wailing of the Stukas. (Someone who did not get used to it.) Someone who has not seen the ocean burst into flames. Someone who doesn't rely on a few pieces of metal and glass and thin air to keep him alive.

-

In this universe, they don't meet again. The war ends, Collins somehow gets through it all, mostly unharmed. He never finds out what happened to Farrier. Collins lives, but in his mind, he's always there, approaching the grey water and Farrier flying above him.

-

 

-

 

-

(In another universe, they meet again, many months after the war. Farrier is standing in front of Collins' door and his eyes are just as sad as always, only a bit more lost and wild. Collins feels the tension in Farrier's shoulders when he wraps his arms tightly around him. They stay like that for a long time, in silence - there's not much to be said.)

 

 


End file.
